Effects of Studying, Attendance, and Hours of Sleep On GPA

Christian Chalmers, Aldemar Guzman,  Gabriell Erisnor

Abstract

This study examines the relationship between studying time, class attendance, sleep and the overall GPA of undergraduate students. The goal of the study was to discover and analyze which behaviors negatively impacted the average GPA of undergraduate college students. An online survey was created, through Google software, and was distributed to a large population of students through both verbal and electronic means. The survey asked students for basic demographic data along with questions regarding the tendencies and external influences which may affect their academic career. It was predicted that those who studied less, attended class less frequently, and slept less than their peers would perform worse than others. In actuality, the data showed that while studying played a role in GPA, it had a relatively minor effect on GPA in comparison to the other factors being considered. Sleep and class attendance were found to be the greatest predictors of a higher GPA.

Introduction

College performance in undergraduate students is affected by many factors. Students are often dealing with external factors or have inefficient techniques that negatively impact their academic performance. Students in college are usually involved in various activities, including work, internships, or other familial responsibilities. As a result, students find themselves having less time to devote to school which can affect students and their success in college. A study conducted in 2006 by researchers, Syed Tahir Hijazi and S.M.M Raza Naqvi’s titled, “Factors Affecting Students’ Performance A Case of Private Colleges” investigated the factors that specifically affect the performance of college juniors and seniors in Pakistan. They focused on the students’ attitude towards attendance in classes, time spent studying, their parent’s income, mother’s age, and their mother’s education. The researchers objective in this study is pinpoint the factors that affect student performance and use that to find out how they can improve student’s performance. Using a questionnaire to collect their data, the study found that the factors in question had a statistically significant effect on student’s performance. This was attributed to the fact that those who regularly attend class shows the effort and seriousness of the student in regards to their studies. This study evaluates the negative and positive effects of studying time, class attendance, and sleep on the GPA of students. Students who devote less time to studying, don’t attend their class and slept less are expected to perform worse academically than those who devoted more of their time to studying, always attended their classes, and slept for a healthy amount of time.

Materials/Methods

The apparatus was comprised of any device that could access the internet, google survey, and popular media outlets. To begin researching what factors affected academic performance the independent variables were selected, study hours, attendance, and sleep. These variables affected the dependent variable, average GPA. The demographics of each student were also recorded in case there was a notable effect on the target population. The data was collected through the use of the Google survey application. The anonymous questionnaire created recorded the demographic and independent variables previously mentioned. The survey was comprised of both multiple choice questions and short answer questions to achieve maximum accuracy for each student. After the survey was created the survey was offered to a random sample of current college students. The survey was offered to students in person on our personal devices but was also shared through social media outlets such as GroupMe and Snapchat. The Google survey software recorded each individual response and created a profile based on their responses. This profile revealed information on the demographics of the student and the effects of the variables studied in connection to GPA. In total, 130 college students were surveyed. Once the data was collected bar graphs were created to express the results.

Results

The main findings of the study showed that there was a relationship between average GPA and sleep hours, attendance and studying hours. Though it was a slight difference, Figure 1 demonstrates that students who spent more hours studying had a higher GPA. More specifically, students who studied 7 hours and more on average weekly had a 3.56 GPA compared to a student who studied 0-2 hours on average weekly who had an average GPA of about 3.29.

Figure 1: Bar Graph shows variance in Time spent studying weekly and the average GPA of students.

The results in Figure 2 showed that those who never attended their classes had the lowest GPA of about 2.95. Those who always attended their classes or sometimes attended classes had similar higher GPA’s of about 3.4.

Figure 2: Bar Graph shows the variance in attendance and the average GPA of students.

The results of Figure 3 showed that students with the lowest average GPA were correlated to the lowest amount of sleep the student had daily. Students with 0-3 hours of sleep had an average GPA of 3.22. The students with the highest GPA were the students who slept over 10 hours and they had an average GPA of 3.8. The second highest GPA group was about 3.5 and it was students who slept for 7 to 10 hours daily.

Figure 3: Bar Graph shows variance in daily sleep compared to average GPA.

Discussion

The results of this study support the hypothesis that hours of sleep, study hours, attendance affect college students’ school performance. The results show that as the amount of time spent studying on average increases, so does the average GPA. The results also show a positive correlation between attending classes and the average GPA. In addition, as the hours of sleep students obtained increased so did the average GPA which shows a positive correlation. In general, the results show that if students attend classes frequently, sleep often, and study for over seven hours weekly, they were performing well academically.

The limitations of this study lie in the lack of ability to verify the data collected. There is no way to confirm how accurate the data collected is because it was self-reported. This self-reporting aspect allowed students to enter the numbers they desired which could have been false. In addition, this survey was not given to all students on campus which express limitations in the studies relatively small sample size. Moreover, the results of the study show minimal variance in data which calls for further research to be taken in order to confirm the hypothesis and the trends observed.

In reference to further research, new studies should be conducted with a larger sample size as well as studying more variables. Other variables that should be taken into account could be various factors affecting students lives such as transportation or outside responsibilities. Also, studies as such can reveal trends amongst different demographics such as gender, major, and race. Hopefully, further studying this topic across a range of topics can help researchers accurately identify variables that positively and negatively impact college students’ performance.

References

Hijazi ST, Naqvi SMMR. FACTORS AFFECTING STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE A Case Of

Private Colleges. 2006 [accessed 2019 Mar 26]; 3 (1). https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/cf09/8d90f8884a8950e3b9ba7c63ae2d59cfeb32.pdf